I Can See What You Are Doing - and it disgusts me (The Watchman - Robert Crais)

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	The Watchman - Robert Crais
Date:	24/07/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Action, fast pace

Disadvantages: Ill judges lovers

The sidekick is an important role in fiction. What would Sherlock Holmes have been without Dr Watson? A sidekick is used as much as a reflection on the hero as a character themselves. This means that they are often contrary to the main protagonist. If your hero is a moral compass, then the sidekick may have a dark edge. If your hero is a dope taking genius, then his partner may be a straight laced everyman. The companion is a very useful tool for any author, especially in crime fiction, as it allows them to take the book in a direction that perhaps the hero would not do. A good example of this in recent crime fiction is Elvis Cole and his partner Joe Pike. Cole is a witty PI who tries to do his best, but he needs Pike's physical strength and ruthless streak on many occasions. What happens though when the tables turn? Suddenly the sidekick becomes the meal and the hero the side salad. Can that possibly work?

The book opens suddenly with a gun battle between Pike and a group of men. Pike is seemingly protecting a woman from these men and he is having to use deadly force to do so. Not a man to get mixed up in other people's problems, Pike is being forced to return a favour to a dangerous man he owes. Larkin is a spoilt rich girl who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed the whereabouts of a known criminal and terrorist. Now the villain is after her and wants her dead before she can go to court. With the police and FBI leaking like a sieve Pike has to go underground with the girl and off the grid. However, Pike is not a man who runs, with the aid of his friend Elvis Cole, his plan is to take the action to the bad guy, rather than waiting to be killed.

This is a book that opens at a pace and does not stop. I am a huge fan of Robert Crais and especially his Elvis Cole books. The Cole series has a wonderful balance of great storytelling, witty banter and exhilarating action. This action is normally pretty dark and sometimes violent. The perpetrator of this punishment is as often Pike as it is the enemy. The laughs are provided by 'The World's Best Detective' Elvis Cole, his breezy nature hides a strong detective who will do anything to get to the truth. Without Cole's light asides can Crais still strike the right balance?

'The Watchman' does strike a good balance, but it is one that is different from other books in the series. With the main protagonist now being Pike the light has been removed, but the action is upped. Pike is a man of action and he goes to the problem rather than sitting back. The entire book is one fast investigation as Pike moves closer to a solution and does not mind killing on the way. As well as action we do get to know a little bit more about the man behind the shades. I was worried that Crais would expose Pike fully, but luckily we do delve deeper, but he is still an enigma. We learn about his past in a couple of flash back segments and they reveal a little about him, but not too much. The issue I had with these segments was not the content, but the fact they were italic. If you have ten pages in a book all written in italics its starts to annoy quickly.

Crais has treated the character of Pike well in terms of his past. It is the present that is more of an issue. The book has a slightly ill judged chemistry between the young spoilt girl and the aging ex-marine. For a man who has spent his life keeping his emotions on an even keel, it felt slightly false that he would fall apparently head over heels so easily.

The lack of humour in 'The Watchman' is replaced well with some of the best action sequences that Crais has written. Cole has enough of a role in the book to appease the fans, but this is essentially Pike's novel. The brief glimpses into his past as a police officer, frightened child and mercenary, are a useful insight into why Pike is the cold man he is. The book does have its flaws with the unconvincing love affair being the biggest, but none of them can overshadow the fact that this is a fun action romp that starts of at a frantic pace and never lets up until it's over.

Author: Robert Crais
Year: 2007
Price: amazon uk - £4.27
play.com - £2.49

Summary: A top action novel